Community connection

FOOD lovers from all across Barbados made their way to the north of the island yesterday to enjoy a range of culinary delights at the first Barbados Food & Rum Pop up for the 2020 season.

Lord’s Cricket Ground in St. Lucy was a hive of activity as patrons came to see the launch of the Pick de Dish, the National Food & Rum Competition, which is a part of the We Gatherin’ celebrations. The event is intended to create a friendly cooking rivalry across Barbados and will be carried out on a parish by parish basis during the month in which each parish activity for the We Gatherin celebrations are taking place. A National Competition will be held as part of the Barbados Food and Rum Festival 2020. The official St. Lucy Pick de Dish competition will take place on January 31.

Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. Robert Chase highlighted the importance of this initiative.

“What we are seeking to do is continue to embrace the communities in the tourism effort and create the connectivity between what we do in terms of food and rum on a day to day basis in Barbados and what the visitor comes to experience.”

“Barbados is known as the culinary capital of the Caribbean. One of the reasons for that is because of the talent we have in terms of just preparation of dishes on a day to day basis. So what we are doing with Pick de Dish is just encouraging talent development,but at the same time we are encouraging the creation of venues and venues that visitors can go beyond the beach. Because tourism is more than just sun, sea and sand. We can’t compete on the global stage with just sun, sea and sand. So embracing the community and embracing that friendliness that makes Barbados such a tremendous tropical destination through activities like this in the community is really what these competitions [are about] as far as Food and Rum is concerned.”

In relation to the Food and Rum Festival this year, the CEO noted that Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has mandated that festivities be carried into the community. “That we give the community a chance to participate, experience the festival and be part of the festival and to help to grow that interaction between the visitor and Bajans as we know it,” he said.

In addition to a variety of food trucks and stalls, there was also a live cooking demo on stage, fun interactive games with live local performances to bring the event to a close. (JH)